8 

411 



DISCOURSE 



OCCASIONED BY THE! DEATH 



JACOB STRAWN, 



THE GREAT AMERICAN FARMER. 



DELIVERKD IN STRAWN'S HALL, JACKSONVILLE, ITL., SEPTEMBER 17, 1865 



Bev. l.- m. glover, d. d. 

Pastor 1st Presbyterian Church. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE FAMILY. 



JACKSONVILLE : 

FRANKLIN PRINTING OFFICE. 




Class. 
Book. 






DISCOURSE 



occ^vsioisri^r) by the death 



JACOB STRAWN, 



THE G1SAT AMERICAN FARMER. 



DELIVERED IN STRAWS HALL, JACKSONVILLE, ILL., SEPTEMBER IT, 1865, 

BY 

Rev. L. M. GLOVER, D. D., 

Pastor 1st Presbyterian Church. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE FAMILY. 



JACKSONVILLE : 
FRANKLIN PRINTING OFFICE. 



IS65. 



S4V 



■ ol 



DISCOURSE. 



Prov. 10 : 4.— He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand ; but the 
hand of the diligent maketh rich. 

Jacob Strawn was born May 30, 1800, in Somerset 
county, Pennsylvania. "When he was seventeen years old 
his parents removed to Licking county, Ohio, where he was 
married, at the age of nineteen, to Miss Matilda Green, 
with whom he lived twelve years. Seven children were 
born to them, of whom three sons are living. In the year 
1831 he removed to Morgan county, Illinois, where soon 
losing his first wife, he married Miss Phebe Gates in July, 
1832. By this marriage he had six children, five sons and 
one daughter, all of whom survive except one son who was 
killed in an ox-mill wheel when five years old. After a life 
of almost unexampled activity, and of very unusual success 
in amassing a fortune, Mr. Strawn died suddenly, at home, 
of a disease to which he had for years been subject, on the 
23d of August, 1865. 

In consideration of Mr. Strawn's long residence in our 
neighborhood, the marked peculiarities of his character, his 
prominence as a. business man within the special sphere of 
his activity, and the wonderful achievements of his life, as 
well as out of regard to the wishes of his family and their 
numerous connections, it has seemed appropriate that a 
discourse embodying the main tacts and lessons of his 
history should be prepared and delivered as soon after his 
decease as convenient, in the presence of his fellow citizens, 
and in this hall bearing his name and erected as a public 
benefit by his munificence. It is believed that there is 
important instruction connected with the subject which 
should be elicited and employed; it is also believed that 



4 FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 

there are misconceptions about it which need correction.* 
The present occasion is designed to meet the demand 
referred to, and the discourse to which your attention is now 
invited is meant to give utterance to all that friendship may 
claim, and to all that duty may require, a limitation which 
should ever be regarded in speaking of the dead, so as at 
once to be just to human feelings and just to God. 

I speak of Jacob Strawn under the conviction that he 
was not a common man. Let me add that I seldom passed 
any time in his company without having the feeling more 
deeply impressed upon my mind that he was a great man ; 
great, it is true, in a sense peculiar to himself; great in his 
kind, and as few men of his kind ever come to be. He 
was as distinguished, in the sphere of his operations, as 
Napoleon was in his, or Washington in -his, or Clay and 
Webster in theirs. He was as truly a prince among agri- 
culturists and herdsmen as Frederick was among crowned 
heads, or as Bacon was in the realm of mind. His origin 
was humble but respectable. His education was limited to 
the essential rudiments of knowledge. He was not born to 
great possessions, but to the necessities of labor. He was 
not advanced to wealth by rich legacies, or by the accidental 
falling into his hands of large estates. His success in 
business was no chance result. It did not come about by 
favoring circumstances. It was no mere achievement of 
good luck. The greatness we ascribe to him was legitimate : 
it was in and of himself, and not in or of fortuities in any 
sort or to any degree. It does not often occur that so much 
is accomplished by the forces which are within a man ; by 
sagacity, by self-reliance and energy of will. The problem 
of his success in life is not solved by the simple fact that he 
was industrious and hard working. Other men, also, are 
industrious and hard working, and yet without success, or 
if successful, usually in a far lower degree. If,, therefore, 
it be said that any one might achieve what he achieved by 
doing as he tlid, we reply that this cannot be so, unless by 
doing as he did is meant not simply toiling as he toiled, but 
also planning as he planned. Given, the same amount of 

* See Appendix A 



FUNERA.L DISCOURSE. ' O 

muscle, the same power of endurance, and the same zeal of 
work that he possessed, and yet you have not necessarily 
the man lie was, nor do you account for the results of his 
life. But given all these things, and genius besides, and 
you have the elements which constituted the' real Jacob 
Strawn, and by virtue of which he became the most distin- 
guished farmer of the age. For he was a man of genius in 
the proper sense of the word. Genius is not altogether 
intellectual in its scope. It is not confined to fields of 
literature and works of art. It cannot he appropriated by 
poets, philosophers, painters, and sculptors. It belongs also 
to sue! i as have a special gift in any department of human 
enterprise and effort. There is no reason why labor should 
not have its geniuses as well as learning, no reason why the 
workshop and the farm should not give birth to representa- 
tive men as well as the learned professions. A man of 
extraordinary capacity in his sphere, who rises to the first 
rank in that sphere, who makes himself a model in it, who 
lays down laws and furnishes examples which it is difficult 
if not impossible for others to attain unto is a genius. Mr. 
Strawn was born of the soil, and for the soil he had a kind 
of filial regard. He took to farming naturally, and from a 
love of the employment. It was the bent of his mind. In 
early life, doubtless, lie dreamed of broad acres and vast 
landed estates. But the special inclination of his genius 
was tow r ard the handling of cattle. This showed itself when 
he was a boy ten years of age. Even then he began to 
exercise himself in that way, and determined that it should 
constitute the business of his life. And so it did, farming, 
as commonly pursued, being only incidental and subsidiary 
to the rearing of stock to supply the markets of towns and 
cities. The genius of the man led him into extensive 
operations in his line. He could not farm it on a small 
scale. A farm which one might walk over in a few minutes 
would not satisfy him; he must have one which a day's ride 
on horseback would hardly encompass. He must have 
broad fields, and many of them. He must have large tracts 
of land in various places for the accommodation of his 
stock. These extensive operations involved the employment 
2 



6 FI'XKKAI. DISCOURSE. 

of very many hands. His estates must be covered with 
tenants t<> carry forward the farm work. Numerous persons 
must be employed to look after the cattle ami drive them 
from field to field, and from farm to farm, and then to 
market. The oversight of such business required a mind 
to comprehend the whole. He who watched the entire 
movement of the machinery and kept all a going must pos- 
sess great quickness and range of eve, vast power over 
details, a wondrous faculty to combine and harmonize and 
turn to a single result such numerous minds and hands and 
operations. Mr. Strawn was one of a very few men who 
unite in themselves the various qualifications for such exten- 
sive responsibilities. His thoughts ranged rapidly over the 
whole concern. Nothing appertaining to it escaped his no- 
tice. Quick, rapid, and exact, no interest suffered. While 
attending to.what was required atone poinl he did nor allow 
neglect ;it another. For to ;i perfect understanding of the 
business in winch he was engaged he added a thorough 
knowledge of men. His judgment of character was wv\ 
keen and accurate. He surveyed a stranger with a most 
penetrating eye, and seldom erred in the estimate he formed. 
He. did not like a person who could not look him in the eye ; 
he took it as evidencing want of spirit and self-reliance, it 
not a consciousness of being unworthy. He rightly judged 
that they would be most likely to respect him who gave him 
most occasion to respect them. This insight into character 
was an indispensable condition of success in rim vast busi- 
ness which he carried on. it enabled him to adapt men to 
[daces, and thus protect his interest- at every point against 
liabilities of loss or failure. The vicious he would not 
employ, and the unfaithful he would dismiss. He soon saw 
who would serve his purpose and who would not. The 
honest, and industrious he encouraged with additional re- 
wards, and thus attached them permanently to his interests, 
so that they became, in not a few instances, identified for 
life with his estates. Surely he who could constantly keep 
in view concerns so numerous and varied, who was capable 
of such a combination of means and measures suited to a 
single purpose, cannot be se1 down as a common man. 



I'lW'KRAl. DISCOURSE. i 

Let it not be supposed that he carried forward those 
great farming operations by proxy. Fie was no gentleman 
farmer. Besides superintending, he took part in the hardest 
of the work. He showed by example how things were to 
be done. Before infirmities began to thicken upon him 
there was not one among all his tenantry whom lie did not 
surpass in actual labor. He wrought with his own hands 
upon the great problems of wealth which engaged him. 
Indeed, he was a prodigy of labor. In all weather, by 
night and by day, he pushed his business forward. Often 
he got his sleep in the saddle. Nothing but impossibilities 
were allowed to interfere with the carrying out of his plans. 
He scorned difficulties. The greater the difficulty, the 
stronger was his purpose, and the higher his ambition to 
overcome it. Of privations and hardships he made light, 
lb- ue&sed from nothing' deemed riecessan to be done, b> 
reason of the hear, or the cold, or the storm.. Thai mm-*! 
have been an iron frame that was equal to such toil ami 
exposure, and met them so Long without weariness or ex- 
hanstion. AVe wonder it had not sooner o-iven wav before 
that restless and resistless spirit which wrought in it and 
by it. 

Mr. Strawn's life is a lesson of industry, promptitude, 
and thrift. It shows what power there is in singleness oi 
devotion to a given object. It illustrates the dignity of 
labor. It exemplifies what the Bible says, "The hand of 
the diligent maketh rich," and. " Seest thou a man diligent 
io business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand 
before mean men.'" Mr. Strawn's maxims in regard to 
the way and means of worldly thrift, which some years ago 
found rheir way into the newspapers, are very pertinent and 
valuable, in matter and form reminding us of many of the 
wise and pithy sayings of Benjamin Franklin.* Idlers he 
could not abide-, nor such as neglect their business, and 
waste their time going to towns, sitting on street corners, 
talking of the news and discussing politics. He held lazi- 
ness to be one of the chief vices, and the cause of most of 
the poverty and distress in the land and world. He taught 

* See Appendix B. 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 



that if people would improve in honest labor the time they 
squander in sleep and ease and pleasure, and in making and 
unmaking public officers, there would be prosperity and 
abundance, begging woidd cease, and that kind of dishon- 
esty, too, by which a part of the community live on the other 
part. He urged that the way to have money is not to beg, 
steal, or borrow it, but to make it by early rising, by 
promptly doing what the hand finds to do, by economy in 
expenditures according to Poor Richard's maxim that "a 
penny saved is a penny gained."' 1 By living up to such 
rules as these he proved their soundness and value; he 
made great gains, and those gains were legitimate. 

This leads me to speak of the deceased in a more per- 
sonal way, as to the principles of action which animated 
him, and the general estimate which is to be formed of his 
character. If, unfortunately, any entertain the impression 
that he was a bad man, it can only be because they have 
misjudged or have been misinformed. As to his views, I 
am not aware that he held any which were corrupt. On 
the contrary, he is believed to have held all the commonly 
accepted truths of religion and morality. His habits, too. 
were certainly more unexceptionable than is usual among 
the opulent. He was not addicted to any vices. In prin- 
ciple and habit he was a thorough temperance man, never 
using intoxicating liquor in any shape. JNor could he en- 
dure men about him who did indulge in strong drink. He 
set down all such as trifling fellows, and he had no use for 
them. Tobacco, also, he discarded as both unnecessary and 
injurious. In moments of high excitement and passion he 
would employ expressions that are usually regarded as 
profane, but he was not in the proper sense of the word a 
profane swearer. He was also remarkably free from the 
ostentations of wealth. He exhibited none of the vanity 
which riches are adapted to produce. He had too much 
good sense to boast of his possessions. In dress and equip- 
age he was plain as became the first farmer of the Republic. 
And in regard to his business, so far as I have known and 
have been able to ascertain by inquiry, he always conducted 
it on the strictest principles of uprightness. He had a very 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE. H 

high sense of honor in his transactions. His word he held 
sacred. His promptitude in meeting promises was pro- 
verbial. If he owed a man, he paid him on the very day, 
the very hour specified in the agreement, and when men 
owed him he required them to come to time in like manner. 
It came to be understood that when Jacob Strawn engaged 
to do a thing he would do it, whether with or without a 
written obligation. Between the making: of a bargain and 
the sealing of it by legal forms there was with him no 
flinching or backing out. His trading, too, was uniformly 
honorable. He was fair in buying, and he was fair in sell- 
ing. He practiced none of the sly arts of dishonesty. All 
deception he despised, and there is no reason to believe he 
ever practiced it for the sake of advantage, and there is 
as little reason to think it was ever successfully practiced 
upon him, for he was too discerning to be caught in that 
way. Honesty, he knew well enough, was a part of his 
capital, and yet I do not believe he was honest because 
honesty is the best policy, but because he had no disposition 
to pursue any other policy. I have yet to hear of a single 
instance, during the long period of his residence among us, 
in which he has been known and acknowledged to have 
departed from that policy, and this is saying much for one 
who carried on the extensive operations that he did for so 
many years. He amassed a great fortune, but it is believed 
he did it by methods entirely unexceptionable. He made 
money very' fast, but the means employed were legitimate. 
It was not by running hazards of speculation ; it was not 
by any manner of stock gambling, but by the regular opera- 
tion of the laws of labor and of commerce ; by keen, far- 
sighted management, such as seldom failed of the results 
intended. Mr. Strawn was not one of those who have a 
faculty of making a fortune one day and losing it the next. 
He was not of those who risk and break, and whose pros- 
perity is a certain presage of ruin. He never failed, and 
had no need of laws in aid of bankrupts, for he did his 
business on principles that do not expose to unanticipated 
pressure or disaster. It deserves also to be told that the 
rectitude of his transactions did not have its rule and 
3 



10 FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 

measure in that which is strictly and merely legal. Many 
things that are legal are not exactly right according to higher 
principles. There are many ways of doing among business 
men which, though covered by forms of law, are yet une- 
qual and oppressive. Mr. Strawn was remarkably free 
from vices of that sort. He was slow to take advantage of 
a man's present necessities, much more of his misfortunes, 
to farther a selfish end. He took interest for his money, 
but not exorbitant interest. He never acquired the reputa- 
tion of a hard and uncompromising usurer. Nor did he 
incur the odium which, whether justly or unjustly, attaches 
to dealing in other men's paper, commonly called shaving 
notes. He was not a jockey of any sort. He did not enrich 
himself at the expense of his neighbors. He did not in- 
crease his own by unsettling the estates of his fellow men. 
Doubtless, he often pressed his claims by legal means, but 
he got no one into his power for the sake of fleecing him, 
nor was his thrift due to any advantage taken of persons 
fallen into straits. Though little disposed to favor such as 
had tailed of their engagements through laziness or neglect, 
he was not guilty of distressing any whose misfortunes 
made an appeal for leniency. It was not by any sort of 
rapacity that his great fortune was amassed. His reputation 
is not associated with the foreclosing of mortgages, and the 
enforcement of executions, regardless of mercy's and hu- 
manity's claim. Nor was he an oppressor in the matter of 
wages. He did not grind the faces of the poor. He gave 
those in his employ what was just and equal, and numerous 
persons who served him, and who with their families were 
dependent upon him, will doubtless feel that in his death 
they have lost a friend. For he was a friend to working 
men, a friend in need to the poor and suffering. If any 
conceive of him as hard-hearted and unfeeling, they mistake. 
Onder that rude exterior there beat a heart that was easily 
touched by an appeal to sympathy. Rough, bustling, and 
stormy as he was at times, at other times he was mild and 
gentle as childhood. The real story of poverty and want 
never failed to reach his ear. He did not turn away coldly 
from any well authenticated tale of sorrow. I have seen 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 11 

him melted to tears by tender words. I have seen his great 
frame convulsed as he listened to touching narrations of 
suffering and sorrow. For the soldier and his family he 
had warm sympathies, and as his heart prompted aid in- their 
distresses so his hand did not withhold it. He' loved his 
pOuntry and those who served her in the field. He was 
warmly attached to the late President, because he believed 
him honest, sincere, unselfish, and earnestly devoted to the 
welfare of the nation. 

It would not be strange if some thought Mr. Strawn 
miserly. If so, they either mistook him or the meaning of 
the word. He was doubtless fond of making money, and 
the money he made he took good care of. He was no 
spendthrift. He wasted nothing in the ways of a thought- 
less prodigality, lie studied carefulness and economy, but 
he was not small and penurious. He was no miser. The 
miser is the meanest form of human character. He loves 
money for its own sake. He pursues it as an ultimate good. 
He hoards it as a, source of delight. He values it more 
highly than anything he can buy with it. It is to him more 
than meat and raiment. It is to him comfort and luxury. 
All other comforts and luxuries he denies himself that he 
may enjoy his money alone. His happiness is in counting 
what he has got and in getting more. With an abundance 
at hand, he impoverishes both his body and his mind, mak- 
ing no provision for social or intellectual enjoyment. To 
the calls of sympathy and friendship he gives no heed. To 
the appeals of suffering humanity he is deaf. Though 
eagerly gathering in the means of good, he gives out nothing 
from his full store. With Mr. Strawn it was far from being 
so. He held to his money with no such miserly grasp. 
What he deemed necessary for himself or family he sup- 
plied cheerfully and bountifully. He stinted none dependent 
upon him in the matter of food and raiment, To the pool' 
and suffering he lent a helping hand. To immediate objects 
of charity he usually gave something. To more general 
benevolent causes, such as make their appeal to a decided 
religious principle, lie was more slow to contribute ; and yet 
if an enterprise strucli him as good and beneficial in its 



12 FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 

tendency he was likely to do something for it, and I never 
knew of his contributing even the smallest amount to any 
doubtful or bad object, or such as he thought to be so. He 
would help build school-houses and meeting-houses, but he 
would do nothing in aid of any enterprise intended, or in 
his estimation adapted, to corrupt or injure society. In 
various conversations with him I urged the importance of 
more bountiful giving to acknowledged good causes, fortius 
reason, among others, that it woidd add to his enjoyment. 
To this he assented, saying he thought it likely. And 
afterward, when he made the munificent gift of ten thousand 
dollars to the Christian Commission, he is understood to 
have admitted that it gave him more pleasure than any other 
act of his life. A few days before his death he contributed 
again to the same object. A man of miserly spirit makes 
no such record as this. Devoted as Mr. Strawn was to the 
acquisition of wealth, he condescended to nothing little or 
mean. His money he did not keep to look at, but put it 
forth and kept it in motion, with an active and enterprising- 
spirit, in matters of trade and commerce, whereby, while 
reaping large advantages himself, he conferred great favors 
upon the community. He usually entered on no enterprises 
but such as he kneAV would pay. There is one eminent ex- 
ception to that course, namely, the erection of this magnifi- 
cent Hall, which he well understood could be remunerative 
in no degree commensurate to the vast amount of funds 
invested in it. Some speak of it as designed for a monu- 
ment to himself. I am sure, however, that he did not 
authorize the idea, and yet if he intended it to be so it is to 
his praise that he sought to associate his name with a work 
not only noble in itselt, but so well adapted, by proper man- 
agement, to be a public benefit, and that for many years. 

It is well known that Mr. Strawn never made any pro- 
fessions of piety. He was not a contemner of religion. He 
believed it important and necessary. ' He looked upon the 
Bible as a good book, and of divine authority. He was no 
reviler of Christian people, but for those whose lives and 
spirit commended them as 'sincerely and truly pious he 
showed a marked respect; at the same time. Christians who 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 13 

act like sinners he despised. It would be useless to deny 
and needless to affirm that he had something of a self- 
righteous spirit, for that is not so much the fault of particu- 
lar persons as of the whole race. But he was not to my 
knowledge offensively faulty in that regard. He doubtless 
saw some making larger professions than himself who fell 
below his own standard of moral action and well doing, and 
he may occasionally have drawn the contrast. Yet he was 
far from thinking himself perfect, and there is no reason to 
presume that ' he looked for salvation on the ground of 
personal merit. He no doubt oftener had a sense of imper- 
fection than he expressed it, at the same time it was not 
unfrequently that he acknowledged regret for his errors. 
It is well known to his friends thai he was often deeply 
pained at the remembrance of many things said and done 
by him in moments of unrestrained passion. He felt the 
difficulty, and yet he knew the importance of curbing that 
vehemence of temper which was characteristic of him, and 
there is some reason to think he did try to break in upon 
the tendency and the habit. It was noticed that toward the 
close of his life he was more quiet and subdued than for- 
merly. This was doubtless due in part to the infirmities 
which kept him more in-doors, and that forced him more to 
reflection and to a forecasting of the future. He seemed 
latterly to be fully impressed with the near approach of 
death, and the thought, so far as entertained and dwelt upon, 
could not fail to be salutary. It was also observed that the 
last few weeks and months were much spent in reading the 
Bible, and it is supposed he perused large portions of that 
sacred book, if not the whole of it, during those closing 
periods of his life. As we look back upon his course the 
error which impresses itself upon us was not that of openly 
despising religion, but of practically neglecting it. He 
probably intended attention to the subject at some future 
and convenient season, yet like others he did not find that 
worldly cares and business relaxed in favor of religion 
and the pursuit of it, but that the more deeply he became 
involved in outward things, the less he was inclined to the 
pursuit of those things which are spiritual and eternal. 
4 



14 FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 

This is usually, indeed, necessarily so. And hence the 
importance, in every case, of giving heed to paramount 
interests, of seeking first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, of securing before all things else an inherit- 
ance in the skies. When this is done a man's spirit is 
altogether in harmony with his real welfare, his life is 
marked by a proper unity of purpose and effort, and his 
whole character is fashioned to the just proportions of an 
immortal existence. The qualities which we admire in our 
great citizen farmer, as diligence, energy, perseverance, are 
not the less but the more to be admired when animated and 
ins] tired by the lofty principles of religion. And I have 
often thought during his life what a grateful thing it would 
be to see that restless spirit quieted and subdued by the 
love of Jesus ; to see that mighty working force, body and 
soul, energized by an active and childlike faith in the Re- 
deemer ; and to see all the capabilities and results of that 
wondrous life laid down at the foot of the Cross. That 
would have been such a sight as is not often witnessed. 
That would have been a character as much excelling in 
moral greatness as the character I have described actually 
excels in the elements of natural greatness. That would 
have been a piety unusually illustrated with virtues, ami 
made memorable for ages by the good fruits attending it. 
And nothing is more demanded in our day than such conse- 
cration of mind, of energies, and of acquisitions to God and 
the great objects and interests of the Christian faith. It is 
not desirable that there should be less of worldly thrift and- 
prosperity, but that these should be properly employed, and 
wisely directed to useful ends ; that " Holiness to the Lord " 
should be written upon all the capacities of man, and upon 
all the wealth he honestly acquires. And if we may an- 
ticipate a time when this shall take place, how unspeakably 
glorious the day will be. Then will the energies and the 
activities and gains of this world flow unto him who hath 
redeemed the world by the price of his blood, and whose 
all things are by the covenant thus sealed and ratified. Then 
will men lash themselves and nail whatever they possess to 
the Cross; upon it shall be suspended the fruits of their 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 15 

toil and genius, the wealth of labor and the wealth of love ; 
all the riches of the earth shall pour into Zion ; they shall 
bring their gold and silver from afar ; the kings of Sheba 
and Seba shall offer gifts, and every thing beautiful and 
precious shall deck the diadem of the despised b\it exalted 
Nazarene. Blessed millennial period, let it soon come ! 

My friends, how soon death closes the scene of our 
earthly existence. " The days of our years are threescore 
years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be four- 
score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow ; for it 
is soon cut off and we fly away." The life we have been 
contemplating fell short by several years of the allotted 
period. There is now an end of all his earnest thinking, 
all his wise planning, and all his vast labors. That restless 
heart has ceased to beat. That busy, unquiet life has 
reached its goal. All those vast and effective energies are 
forever still on earth. In the grave whither he has gone 
" there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom," 
neither has he " any more a portion forever in anything 
that is done under the sun." And as it is with him so will 
it soon be with us. Similar destinies hang over our earthly 
existence. In a little while th ere will be an end of all those 
worldly plans, interests, and pleasures which now occupy 
us. Swiftly and suddenly, as in his case, the messenger of 
death may come, and between the warning and the time set 
for our departure the period may be exceeding brief. How 
serious the thought of making an exchange of worlds, and 
of making that exchange upon a hasty and unexpected 
requisition of the soul. And how imminent the danger of 
receiving the summons before our work is done, of its being 
delivered at the very time when we are thinking ourselves 
happily and securely fixed for many years, and even when 
we seem most essential to our families and friends, and the 
circles in which we move. Let us, therefore, watch and be 
ready. Let us seek the proper fitness to live that we may 
also possess the proper fitness to die, so that whether living 
or dying we may be the Lord's. And let us remember that 
the fitness which adapts to the emergencies, both of the 
present and the future, life and death, is a yital interest in 
the exhaustless merit and the cleansing blood of the adora- 
ble Redeemer, to whose love and grace and saving povter I 
commend you all. Amen. 




(A.) Most of the newspaper notices of Mr. Strawn contain many error.?. 
For instance, it is said that his whole fortune at the time of his settling in 
Illinois was five hundred acres of land and fifty cents in silver. He may not 
have had much ready money on his arrival, but the fact is that at that time 
he was worth from six to eight thousand dollars, certainly a very good outfit 
for a new country. His father, though not wealthy, was well oft; and gave 
his children a respectable start in tlie world. 

Again, the papers report that Mr. Strawn had been in the Legislature of 
Illinois as the Representative of his District ; also, that he built pretty much 
the whole of Jacksonville, (now a snug city of about eight thousand inhabit- 
ants), both of which stories are made out of whole cloth. He never held 
any office, and the only part of Jacksonville he built is the Hall which 
bears his name, nor did he own any other town property. 

The reports about the " snap " method of getting his wives, and various 
other stories concerning his eccentricities, must be taken at a discount. 

(B.) Mr. Strawn's Maxims, published aeveral years since, and designed 
to give the secret of his success : 

" When you wake up do not roll over, but roll out. It will give you time 
to ditch all your sloughs, break them up, harrow them, and sow them with 
timothy and red clover. One bushel clover to ten bushels timothy is enough. 

" Make your fence high, tight, and strong, so that it will keep cattle and 

pigs out. If you have brush, make your lots secure, and keep your hogs 

from the cattle, for if the corn is clean they will eat it better than if it is not. 

* " Be sure to get your hands to bed by seven o'clock ; they will rise early 

by the force of circumstances. 

" Pay a hand, if he is a poor hand, all you promise him ; if he is a good 
hand, pay him a little more ; it will encourage him to do still better. 

" Always feed your hands as well as you do yourself, for the laboring 
men are the bone and sinew of the world, and ought to be wei. i, treated. 

" I am satisfied that getting up early, industry, and regular habits are 
the best medicines ever prescribed for health. 

"When it comes rainy, bad weather, so that you cannot work out of doors, 
cut and split your wood. 

" Make your tracks when it rains hard, cleaning your stables, or fixing 
something which you would have to stop the plow for and fix in good weather. 

" Make your tracks, fixing your fence or a gate that is oft' the hinges, or 
weatherboarding your barn where the wind has blown off the sidiug, or 
patching the roof of your house or barn. 

"Study your interests closely, and don't spend any time in electing 
PRESIDENTS, SENATORS, and other small officers, or talk of hard times 
when spending your time in town whittling on store boxes, etc. 

" Take your time and make your calculations ; don't do things in a hurry , 
but do them at the right time, and keep your mind as well as your 

b0DY EMPLOYED." 



THE EH. 



mm* 



M 2 ■•. 



